Vehicle landing apparatus



Oct. 20, 1925- P. K. WESTCQTT vmucms LANDING APPARATUS Filed Aug. 8,1923 D Z- v INVENTOR ATTORNEY-9 Patented Oct. 20, 1925.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

PLI'NY K. WESTCO'IT. OF BROOKLYN, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR- TO DIARY A.KENNEY, F BROOKLYN, NEW YORK.

VEHICLE LANDING APPARATUS.

Application filed August 8, 1923.

T0 aZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, PLINY K. ns'roo'r'r,

a citizen of the United States, a resident of Brooklyn, in the county ofKings and State of New York, have invented certain new and usefulImprovements in Vehicle Landing Apparatus, of which the following is aspecification.

The invention relates to a landing structure for aerial vehicles such asairplanes and hydroplanes, which is designed to bring the vehicle torest within narrow space limitations, and the primary object of theinvention is to provide an apparatus of the above nature wherein thesurface of the apparatus which engages the vehicle as the latter passesthereover, is of such a nature as to retard the motion of the vehicleelliciently. It will be understood that the features of the inventionmay be used alone or in combination with additional mechanism forchecking the speed of the vehicle.

Further objects and advantages of the invention will be in part obviousand in part 25 specifically pointed out in the description hereinaftercontained, which, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings,discloses a. preferred embodiment thereof. Such embodiment, however, isto be considered as merely illustrative of its principles.

In the drawings Figure 1 is a side view of a landing apparatusconstructed in accordance with the invention,

Figure 2 is a t ansverse section taken along the line 22 of Figure 1looking in the direction of the arrow.

In accordance with the present invention the runway over which thevehicle passes in landing is provided with stop members positioned to beengaged and moved by the vehicle as it passes along the apparatus andsuch stop members are yiel'dingly urged toward'the position out of whichthe vehicle tends to move them; thus as the vehicle passes along itsmotion is retarded by the work it performs in displacing the stopmembers and the latter subsequently return automatically to theirinitial position. Preferably the stop members are also arranged to givethe effect of an inclined plane Serial No. 656,313.

over which the vehicle must pass in landing as will be later describedin greater detail.

Under some conditions a landing apparatus may be employed in which thespeed of the vehicle is retarded solely by stop members as abovedescribed or such members may be employed in conjunction with otherspeed retarding means, for example, as described in United States PatentNo. il,3?,236, issued to me on November 28, 1922.

The invention is illustrated as applied to a landing apparatus havingone or more continuous traveling webs of-the nature disclosed in Figure2 of the above patent. As shown the web consists of a plurality oftransverse slats 1 supported by a chain 2 running over sprocket wheels 3and 4. As the detailed construction of the above parts is not essentialthey will not be described in greater detail; in fact, the invention maybe used as well with stationary runways, if desired.

In the present embodiment of the invention the stop members abovementioned comprise a plurality of inverted U-shaped rods or cables 5which may swing angularly about shafts (3 supported in suitable bearings 7 on the slats 1. The stop members 5 are urged toward an upper orelevated position in which they most tend to retard the motion of thevehicle, for example, by means of heavy coil springs 8 acting be tweenthe hubs 9 of the stop members and screw collars 10 which are threadedonto the shafts 6. Suitable stops 11 will also be provided to limit theextent to which stop members 5 may be turned upwardly by springs 8.

Thus when a downwardly projecting part of a vehicle, such as the wheelillustrated in Figure 1, passes over the stop members 5 the membersdirectly underneath the wheel will have been fully depressed while thestop members directly in front of the wheel oppose its progress, thusthe motion of the vehicle is retarded due to the force neces sary tomove the stop members as aforesaid. l urthermore the stop membersdirectly ahead of the wheel constitute, in effect, an inclined plane upwhich the vehicle tends to climb as it passes along, retard its speed.

\Vhile a specific embodiment of my invention is being disclosed it willbe obvious that many changes may be made therein without departing fromits principles as defined in the appended claims.

1 claim:

1. A vehicle landing apparatus comprising a runway having stop membersmounted above the same in position to engage and retard the motion of avehicle passingthereover, supporting means for such members permittingthe same to move to nonretarding position when engaged by a vehicle, andmeans yieldingly urging said members towards their vehicle retardingposition whereby the vehicle moves the members to non-retarding positionagainst the resistance of said last-mentioned means.

A vehicle landing apparatus compris ing a runway having transverse stopmembers mounted above the same in position to engage and retard themotion of a vehicle passing thereover, supporting means for such memberspermitting the same to assume elevated and depressed positions and meansyieldingly urging said members toward their elevated positions wherebythe also tending to vehicle moves the members to depressed positionagainst the resistance of said lastmentioned means.

3. The combination set forth in claim 2 wherein said stop members arepivoted on axes extending transversely of the runway and springs areprovided tending to urge said stop members toward an upright position.

=1. A vehicle landing apparatus comprising a continuously traveling webhaving transverse slats thereon and stop members movably mounted abovesaid slats in position to retard the motion of the vehicle passingthereover, and means yieldingly urging said stop members toward theirvehicle retarding position.

5. A vehicle landing apparatus comprising a runway, and stop membersdisposed along said runway, comprising transverse rods disposed abovethe runw y and pivoted to swing toward the latter. together with springsurging said rods toward an upright position.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing, l have hereunto set my handthis 27th day of July. 1923.

PLINY K. VESTCOT'Z.

